The weekend weather

The slow-moving low pressure system that's been creeping up the East Coast all week is now pretty much on our doorstep, while the high pressure that's been keeping it at bay has started to slip off to the east, over Nova Scotia, as the above map illustrates quite cleanly.

As a result, some rain finally began to fall fitfully on us last night, but could never really get going. Forecasters are expecting that to change, calling for a 100 percent chance of rain for us today, at least an inch of it, mostly in the morning. Well, maybe. I can see us getting less rain than that, as this storm system is modest at best.

But the easterly fetch created by the counterclockwise circulation around the low and the clockwise circulation around the high will continue to keep us windy and cool today, with a high only around 67. Those American flags at the 9/11 memorial down by the baseball stadium in St. George will continue flying stiffly as people (and camera crews) come to pay their respects.

The weather will improve for the weekend. Saturday may continue to be cloudy, but it should be dry, and it will also be warmer with a high temp around 75. Sunday looks to be quite fine --- sunny with a high of 79.

Now, a moment of silence, if you will, for Frank Batten Sr., the founder of The Weather Channel who died yesterday at the age of 82. People laughed when he said in the 1980s that people would watch a television channel devoted to the weather. He was right, of course. They were wrong.

I only wish that TWC would stay true to its mission and not continue to go the way of, say, MTV, which has little to do with music anymore. Every time I turn the Weather Channel on it's that stupid "Storm Stories" program, with some guy in Oklahoma recounting how his cat got sucked into a tornado, or what have you. Where's the weather? For that, alas, I find myself going to The Weather Channel's Web site.

Yesterday's extreme temperatures in the contiguous United States --- High: 109 at Imperial, Calif.; Low: 30 at Yellowstone, Wyo. The moon is currently waning gibbous, 60 percent illuminated.